One of Tyneside's oldest residents has been celebrating her 105th birthday.

Eunice Bowman was born in 1898, the second eldest of 11 children, and moved to Gateshead from Lancashire aged seven, when the cotton mills closed and her father travelled to the North East in search of work.

She has lived in the borough ever since.

Aged 16, she had an explosive start to working life in a World War One munitions factory in Scotswood, Newcastle.

After the war, she settled in Bill Quay, Gateshead, with husband Bill Pearson, a miner.

The couple went on to have four children Norman, Doris, Tommy and Connie.

After Bill's death, Eunice remarried in 1940 to miner Frank Bowman, and had fifth child Anne, now a retired Gateshead Council cleaner with four children of her own.

Having worked all her life doing odd jobs for neighbours, as a cleaner at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and in her local fish shop, Eunice still refuses to take things easy.

Her daughter Anne said: "My mother is still very active, I try to help her around the house, but once I get there the chores are usually all done."

Gateshead's Mayor visited Eunice at her Windy Nook home to join her in her birthday celebrations.

He said: "Surviving two world wars and raising five children, at times single-handedly, is an outstanding achievement. I would like to wish Mrs Bowman many happy returns and good health and happiness."